Governess Movies

Thanks everyone for some great discussion today regarding Jane Eyre and the socio-historical contexts of Bronte's novel. Our consideration of governesses and the place of women in Victorian Britain got me thinking about representations of governesses in cinema. Hollywood has certainly interpreted the governess narrative and, in particular, Jane Eyre's character in a number of ways.

Minnie Driver is a seductive re-envisioning of Jane Eyre in Sandra Goldbacher's 1998 film, The Governess. Set in Scotland in the 1840s, this film is sensually seductive, too, with its rich fabrics, rustling fabrics, and evocative sets. This film also explores the dynamics of gender and looking - Driver's governess is an early photographer and she quite literally wields the gaze by the film's conclusion.

Meanwhile, Deborah Kerr played her share of governess roles on the silver screen. She portrays Anna Leonowens in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I (1956), teaching English to the children of the King of Siam (aka Thailand) in a colonial paradise of palaces and proper British accents. Kerr's hoop dresses in this film are FABULOUS and certainly a far cry from Jane's black silk. Kerr's dresses move, shine, flounce, fold . . . I think I'm in love. The costume designers on this film must have had a ball.

In 1961, Kerr starred as the hysterical (is she crazy or not?) governess in The Innocents, a psychological horror film with some pretty creepy little kids. This film interrogates the Victorian governess as a psychological subject, and uses the machinery of the Gothic (spirits, dark mansion, long hallways) to cast doubt on the sanity of its protagonist.

And I cannot wait to see what the latest Hollywood version makes of Bronte's text: March 11, 2011 marks the theatre debut of Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre and Governesses

Brought to you by: Carly Basch and Jessica Flanagan

Our topic for tomorrow's Tutorial discussion sheds light on the world of governesses and its relation to Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte. Governesses (not to be confused with Nannies) take on the role of educating children in a wealthy household. Their responsibilities reside only through educating the children, not taking care of them unlike a nanny would.

From last tutorial, we left off by viewing Child Abuse and Jane's experiences of child oppression during her years at the Reed's and Lowood School. This week we hope to bring some information about the role of the governess, its significance to Jane Eyre as well as Charlotte Bronte's involvement as a governess and how her personal influences help shape, inspire, sympathize and even romanticize the role of a governess through Jane's experiences. From about Chapters 11-26, we are able to take a look into Jane's role as a governess and will explore some of the events that occur that show examples that would show realism but as well as romanticism. Our edited Broadview Anthology version of Jane Eyre explores personal letters Charlotte had with her employees when she was a governess as well as article clips during the time that relate to the topic of 'being a good governess'. We found this piece of information to have a strong backbone and influence into the writings of Jane Eyre and we wish to explore them further and present information on them. Coming from periodicals at the time, these articles will bring in some of the social and political aspects that are drawn to societies' outlook of governesses at the time and how that is incorporated with the novel.

Jane Eyre is seen as a piece that strongly empathizes the female protagonist through out the book and there is no doubt that some of the events that do occur, romanticize women in a way that Jane Eyre is a strong, outspoken individual and is able to find love, despite her social class and position. For fun, we have included a blog site that shows a list of other great novels that include Governesses: http://booklistsforbookworms.blogspot.com/2010/07/fall-in-love-with-governess.html . The post is called "Fall in Love with the Governesses". As well with novels, governesses are well recognized in films. A more contemporary character is Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, but here is the trailer from the film The Governess starring actress, Minnie Driver. Take a look and see if you can make some comparisons/contrasts to what we are reading in Jane Eyre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o_nn5rCANg .

We look forward to expanding our knowledge with you, also at the end of the presentation we will be sharing a list of real-life governesses, which famous people they worked for and some of their significant impacts!

*External Sources used were:

"Fall in Love with the Governesses". Booklists for Bookworms on Blogspot.com. July 2010. http://booklistsforbookworms.blogspot.com/2010/07/fall-in-love-with-governess.html. Web.

The Governess. Dir. Sandra Goldbacher. Star. Minnie Driver and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Sony Pictures Classics, 1998. Film.

(website: Youtube.com was used to show the trailer)